From Jason:
This show follows the adventures of a spirt detective named Yusuke Urameshi, his rival, and two demons who he works with for some odd reason. After the beginning of a story arc about Yusuke dying and coming back to life after a series of ordeals, he is sent on various cases involving demons that are wreaking havoc. Note from Melanie: You forgot to mention he died saving a kid from getting run over by a car! By the way...DUDE...you have way too many spelling errors...I had to fix them all...
In spite of a love relationship between Yusuke and Keiko, this show is strictly a fighting-action anime. Another note from Melanie: KEIKO AND BOTAN FOR LIFE!!!!!!
The core of Yu Yu Hakasho is its fight scenes. They are well designed, and unlike the insane fights in Dragon Ball Z, have a lot of strategy. Victory does not always go to the one with the most power. The Yusuke group tend to get into a lot of sticky situations which are usually resolved with some sort of plan.
Interestingly enough, the explantions all make sense, as they tend to be simple.
Unfortunately, aside from the battle direction, Yu Yu Hakasho does not seem to go the full mile in other categories. The battle animation seems to go in spurts; they're not very fluid. Character personalities and relationships are not fully established and don't seem to be building up in each episode. Dialogue is, however, pretty good. It's used for comic relief (even though half of it isn't that funny) and explanations of battle victories.
One interesting note: For a show that concentrates on the battle direction, the animators also changed the character's clothes often. They also chose color schemes which make the characters look bright and stand out. Overall, Yu Yu Hakasho is an average anime that's worth checking out if you like a lot of fights. Even if you have been turned off by Dragon Ball Z, this show is much different in spite of some similarities (spirit energy attacks.)
